Since the beginning, Rolex used Aegler’s movements , so the firsts ones were powered by jewelled lever movements from Jean Aegler’s factory placed on Rebberg street which later gave the name to the movement. Rebberg movement was introduced in the early years of this century and was initially available with both lever and cylinder escapements.

In 1912, Hans Wilsdorf convinced of the imminent arrival of the wristwatch, gave Hermann Aegler the largest order the firm had ever received. The Rebberg was produced in two different grades, 15 and 7 jewels. The “Rolex 15 Jewels” model featured an all over machined finished to the plates and featured a main winding wheel.

Later, the Rebberg movement was replaced for the Hunter one which production would run almost twice as long. It was first introduced in 1923 in a 10 – ½” size not being recognizable to most of the people because the center wheel bridge is completely different from the later, a more common version. All Hunter movements have a polished rhodium finish. The initial version of the 10 – ½” Hunter was made in 3 different grades: Prima, Extra Prima and Ultra Prima; all of them with 15 jewel movements. The Hunter was the first Rolex movement capable of being timed to chronometer precision. These, were 16, 17 or 18 jewel movements with capped escape jewels, and always had a “Chronometer” sign on its dial.

In 1935 a new Rolex came up with a new patent, the 188077 model: the Superbalance in which timing adjustment screws were recessed from the external surfaces of the balance wheel. The introduction of the Superbalance produce the abandonment of the three grades previously used. The differences were now in the quality of the jewelling.

A visible way of judging the quality of the movement was by looking at the number of adjustments engraved on the main plate. The simplest movements had only two adjustments while better grade movements could have between five to seven adjustments.

From 1935 to 1969, the company produced two iterations of the same 10 – ½” Hunter Calibre: the first one has a much simplified balance wheel and the movements are usually 17 jewels and, the second one, also used this simplified balance wheel and is signed “Rolex 15 jewels Swiss made” on the winding wheel.

The earliest Perpetual models had three immediate factors: the engraving, the rotor and a small slot in the top plate of the frame in order to facilitate the adjustment of the regulator without removing the rotor and its accompanying plate. It was replaced by the “Swiss Made”, engraved around the center retaining screw.The last original movement was replaced by one that reaches to the edge of the case and it has no longer a movement ring: the Chronometer. By 1944, it changed again adding the signature “oyster Perpetual” for the first time. Then, it changed again from being based on the 9 – ¾” Hunter to the 10 – ½” Hunter. This last version was launched as the calibre 720 and it continued till 1950 when it was changed for the calibre 1030. This last one had a flat rotor, two angled cuts ending in circles and a Rolex coronet engraved on the rotor with the legend “Rolex Perpetual”. The model 1030 wasn’t based on a Hunter movement and it was also the first to wind in both rotor directions. Even though the calibre 1030 was a very successful model for Rolex, because of technology developments, it was replaced in 1957 by the new calibre 1530.

The calibre 1530 featured a flatter rotor with five complete annular cuts and two open cuts. The movement was equipped with a free sprung balance produced by Stella for Rolex and it was timed by screws on the wheel rather than the traditional regulator.

Between 1957 and 1977 the 1500 series was introduced. The first one was the calibre 1535 with a progressive calendar mechanism. This model was followed by the 1555 calibre launched which was then followed by the 1565 GMT. In 1964, with the introduction of the faster beat train, meant the rename of the all the previous ones. The new Milgauss featured the calibre 1580. In 1977, the Datejust was introduced; calibre 3035, capable of improving the exactness of the watches. The calibre 3035 was the first one to be fitted with a “quick set” date wheel.

At the very beginning, when Wilsdorf and Davis established the original company, the wristwatches they produced were exclusively for ladies. All of these watches used Aegler movements signed “Rebberg” below the dial. The simple early lady’s watches are classic “transitional” pieces and were tonneau, baguette and rectangular models introduced around 1920. The first ones to incorporate the movement made exclusively for Rolex by Aegler.

During the war years Rolex focused on the production of man’s steel Oyster and the lady’s one were ignored till the Rolex Jubilee in November, 1945, when Rolex introduced two Jubilee models in which was included the lady’s version of the Perpetual, model 4487. Ten years later, at Basel Spring Fair, an Oyster Perpetual Chronometer lady’s version was introduced.

Even though Quartz watches are much more accurate than mechanical movements, strangly Rolex produced a few. Strangely, Rolex was one of the first companies to develop quartz movement.The Quartz Rolex was launched on June 5, 1970 as model 5100, It was the first Rolex production to have a Sapphire crystal and it featured hacking seconds and quick date change. It was an angular shaped and not and Oyster one. It was available in 18 kt gold, both yellow and white.It is the only model that Rolex ever signed their name on as Rolex was not involved in the construction of the movement.

The Day-Date model 6511 was introduced at Basel fair in 1956. It features a window at 12 spelling the day out in full, allied to the Cyclops date window at 3 o’clock. Even though as the Datejust model, this one was available only in 18 Kt gold or platinum but it was a introduced with a new matching “President” bracelet and that is why it was significantly more expensive than the previous models. The Day-Date model features automatic movement and an additional day and date discs and screwed back. When model 6511, was replaced by 6611, the Day-Date started featuring the new calibre 1055, which, with its free sprung Micro-Stella balance, enabled the new watch to become the first Rolex model to bear the legend “Superlative Chronometer Officially Certified” on its dial.When Rolex gave on of these with the designed concealed clasp bracelet to the then-president Dwight D. Eisenhower, the Day-Date started being called the “President”. In order to complete the creation of this major watch Day-Date or by this time President model, Rolex introduced a new case reference number system which is still used nowadays. This new 5th digit added to the model delineated the materials in the watch as it left the factory enabling potential buyers to determine that the timepiece was not a replica.

The newest Day-Date model was introduced at the en of the 90s: the Double Quick Set feature that made possible aligning both the day and date into their proper positions easily. The “Crown collections” are the most expensive watches in Rolex production featuring an expanding variety of precious stones.

Pan American Airways was the first airline to make intercontinental flights with the 707 aircraft. Pan- American was worried about the effect of “Jet-Lag” on its pilots to commission a research and as a result, the company asked Rolex to develop a watch that could keep their pilots knowing their home time and the local time to which they had reached. In remarkably short order the task force produced the “G.M.T. Master” (model 6542), named after Greenwich Mean Time, the world’s standard time. The GMT Master featured a 1035 calibre movement upgraded with the addition of a supplementary 24 hour driving wheel. This new movement was called calibre 1065 powered now four hands where the new hand was complemented by a rotable 24 hour bezel. In 1976, approximately, the GMT Master started featuring the hacking second’s movement and a few years later the “quickset” attribute was also added. Finally, the sapphire crystal was added.The second and newest model was the GMT-Master II, model 16710, featuring the new calibre 3085 movement which allowed the hour hand to be moved forward and backwards in precise one hour jumps without losing the precise accuracy which was usually the reason the watch was bought in the first place.

In the 50s Rolex undertook the challenge of submitting its watches to the Royal Observatory at Kew for chronometer testing. Almost all of the tested watches passed and received the coveted Kew “A” certificates and the distinction of “especially good results” meaning that they produced rating in the top 20% of the accuracy needed to obtain a Kew “A” certificate. It was confirmed that the daily variation was less than half a second.

After obtaining their certificates, the movements were returned to Switzerland and cased prior to sale. Some of them required multiple testing so it was quite common for watches with sequential movement numbers to have case numbers all over the place

While the Submariner was capable of working at the depths the divers did, the long exposure to high pressures had not been anticipated by its designers. The Subamriner was designed to be waterproof and airtight and to survive the pressures of the deep water.

Rolex and Comex (COmpagnie Maritime d’EXpertise) started working together in order to design a watch that would be efficient enough to work properly under the conditions the industrial deep-sea diving as Comex is the world leader in sub-sea engineering and in manned and unmanned sub-sea interventions, scoured all the seas on earth and worked at depths of over 300 meters. Although both companies working together first took one normal Submariner and modified it till they reached the perfect model: “The Submariner 2000 Sea Dweller”. The divers require the best equipment that is available because precision and perfection according to watch quality can mean the difference between life and death. The Sea Dweller differs from a regular Submariner by being much thicker and heavier. It has no “Cyclops” date lens because the glass because of the glass thickness placing the lens at a greater distance from the date disc. According to its bracelet it is machined from solid metal.

The advantage of the Sea Dweller over a Submariner is its ability to undergo repeated compression/decompression cycles in a helium-oxygen atmosphere.

In 1954 Basel, Rolex presented the Submariner model, Rolex pride. The model number 6204 watch was waterproof to a more realistic 200 meters (or 660 feet). It was sold as the watch that was the diver’s friend. When the development of the SCUBA (Self Contained Underwater Breathing Apparatus) diving as a sport really began to take off toward the end of the fifties, a reliable watch was needed as much as a reliable oxygen tank. Rolex developed the Submariner 6204, which had simple parallel hands and it had no protective shoulders by the winding crown and the rotating bezel had only five minute markers. Two years later, this model was replaced by two Submariner models. Theses ones were: the 6538 model (waterproof to 660 feet) and the 6536 model (waterproof only to 330 feet), commonly known by collectors as the “James Bond” models. Then, although the model was redefined it kept the same model number and it introduced a more robust case with bezel markings for the first 15 minutes and a red triangle at the 12 position. Besides, it featured a larger “Triplock” style crown which had the “Brevette” sign under the crown or patented around the circumference. The watch had an officially certified chronometer powered by the new 1030 movement.When model 5512 was launched in 1959, the new case featured the protective shoulders which defended the weakest part of the watch from inadvertent knocks and harms underwater. The new Submariner was launched on the back of Jacques Piccard’s latest adventure where he dove into a new record depth of 25, 798 feet (10.916 meters). The watch was exposed to pressures of over seven tons per square inch, the watch was found in perfect conditions with no evidence of moisture inside the case.In 1965, when the 1565 calibre movement was fitted to the Submariner divers had the joy of combining the benefits of both chronometers movements and date function in one watch. The new model’s number was: 1680.

With black dial, large luminous triangle marker at 12 and luminous Arabic numerals for the other quarters, The Explorer is one of the most recognizable Rolex watch together with the Datejust. An explorer watch is the one that has its dial described. It was first designed and made in honor of Edmund Hilary and Tenzing Norgay, the first to reach the summit of Everest wearing Rolex watches. The Explorer was design for explorers and so it had a high visibility dial, an extra strong case and, under request, they could even be lubricated with a special oil which could withstand temperatures between -20ºC and + 40 ºC without changes in its viscosity. The Rolex Explorer line was designed with extremely challenging conditions in mind. This Rolex watch line was the one that received first the triangle marker at the top of the dial.

In 1942, with the introduction of the bubbleback powered by a perpetual version of the classic 10 – 1/2”’ Hunter, Rolex made one of the most significant movements of its history. This new model had two additions: a sweep seconds hand and a date disc visible though and aperture in the dial at 3.The first Datejust was a seminal one, a model and a design that would last for the next 50 years. This model is still the most beautiful of the Datejusts. Even though the registered name was Ritedate, by the time the watch was presented, it was called “Datejust” and the model was “Jubilee”, applied later to the bracelet.The date function also retained its alternating red and black numbers, presumably to let the wearer know that the date had indeed changed. The only obvious change was when Rolex introduced the Cyclops date magnifier at Basel becoming a signature for the Rolex line.The stainless and gold Datejust was introduced around 1962 and has proven to be one of the most popular models Rolex has ever produced. The new “two-tone” look not only fit the times, but also enabled Rolex to increase the margins on a very popular watch.Since the end of the 1980s, all Datejust have been equipped with a “sapphire” crystal. This crystal is sliced out of a lab-grown sapphire with the Cyclops date window cut from a smaller crystal and the applied.

In 1930, when sportsmen begun to demand chronographs, Rolex started to fulfill that demand. Seven years later, Rolex catalogue shows for the first time the chronographs wristwatches. Rolex chose 10- ½” to 14” movements in one button models allowing the customers to time a single continuous event. The demand came not only from racing spectators, but also from anyone whose profession required having an accurate measuring of and exact elapsed time.In the late 30s, the real breakthrough happened as a consequence of the two button configuration making possible for the customers to stop the timing for breaks in the action.The “Zerograph” is one of the most interesting Rolex Chronographs. It was produced in very limited quantities at the end of the 1930s. It had a 10-1/2”’ Hunter sweep seconds movement, it was the first model to feature the Oyster crown.Afterwards, the first Oyster Chronograph was the model 4500. Models: 6232 and 3668 followed model 4500 and the proved to be as unpopular as the first one. The reason: the depths of World War II.After years of making imperceptible and trivial changes, Rolex reached the final watch: The Cosmograph (model 6239), one of the most popular watches ever produced.In the late 1970s, when Rolex introduced the 6263 Cosmograph, the model was the first to have truly waterproofed pushers. The screw down pushers were added because the customers kept trying to operate the push buttons while the watch was underwater so that let water into the movement. Another advantage of the locking buttons was that it also prevented inadvertent operation pushers.

Wilsdorf was the visionary man who created an accurate wristwatch that can be compared to the finest contemporary mechanical chronometers around the globe. In 1905, when Wilsdorf and Alfred James Davis created Wilsdorf & Davis they never imagined how important the company would become. At the very beginning, the company was just two businessmen trying to make a living in a hard environment. When Wilsdorf registered “Rolex” as the trade mark in Switzerland and began to use the name inside the watches on movements and cases, he then started advertising the name in order to make people asking for the watches by their name: Rolex.In 1914, perfected Rebberg obtained a Kew A certificate for one of their 11”’ movements. The Royal Observatory at Kew (in London) was an outstation of the Royal Observatory at Greenwich, where all the initial work on accurate time keeping had been initiated such as: the search for a method of accuracy finding longitude, the institution of an universal time standard, the development of the first marine chronometer and the establishment of a central facility to test timepieces and certify them were all products of Greenwich. Its principal purpose was to teste marine chronometers, whose accuracy was vital to marine navigation until the 1930’s. The Kew tests were designed to time watches for the Royal Navy would offer to purchase it. Beyond that, based on the chronometer tests at Kew major manufacturers could state that their watches were the most accurate in the world becoming another powerful sales promotion device. Wilsdorf put Rolex watches through such test. Rolex was the only watch in the world to hold a Kew A certificate, getting to promote the success. In order to avoid hurting the watches badly while they were imported to London, Hans Wilsdorf was finally convinced to move the administrative offices of the company from London to Geneva. Later, when it started exporting to United States of America, Wilsdorf made another astute move. While the European market was sinking as a consequence of the war, the American one was rising from the dust. Once again, Rolex was in the right place at the right time.

After Davis sold his shares to Wilsdorf and Aegler they both got to be the directors of Rolex Company. Just over a year later on October 1, 1927, the patent number 120849 was granted for the movement that was to be named Prince. The main advantage of the movement design was that, by placing the winding barrel and the balance at opposite ends of the watch, they could each be much larger than if they were arrayed closely to each other, as would be the case in a normal round watch.The Rolex Prince watch proved to be one of the most accurate wristwatches made to date. The accuracy comes from the very high quality balance wheel, which most unusually for a wristwatch used solid gold screws to add extra weight and, thus, momentum. The watch also had a very high quality finish to the whole escapement, even the wheels. All of these efforts went to ensuring the accuracy of the Prince.

(Rolex’s latest style, the “Prince,” in 18k rose gold)

Many years went by… many models were designed.

The name Marconi was the fourth brand name that Wilsdorf registered. Rolex was registered in 1908, Omigra later the same year, Elvira the following year, and then Marconi Lever, registered as a name for watches and watch parts.Marconi was, of course, named after Gugliemo Marconi who successfully sent radio signals over the Atlantic Ocean in 1901. He was awarded the Nobel Prize for physics in 1909 in recognition of this achievement.By the time the Marconi brand hit the market, it had one small problem: Marconi was a figure whose time had passed.

According to LON, Wilsdorf had gone though a phase of registering company and brand names in 1919 and 1920. On March 17, 1919, to celebrate the end of the “war to end all wars” and the foundation of the League of Nations (the predecessor to the U.N.) in Geneva, he registered the name LON (League of Nations) as a brand name. At the same time, he also registered the names Brex and Unicorn Lever. Unicorn took over from Marconi and a few years later it was joined by Rolco, a simple contraction of “ROLex Company”.

In 1946, the year Rolex celebrated their 40th anniversary or jubilee, it introduced its most expensive watch, the “Datejust”. At the same time Rolex launched its final attempt at penetrating the lower cost watch market: the Tudor which was, at first, symbolized with a stylized rose, representing the Tudor rose. Then it was replaced with a stylized shield.Rolex Tudor was at first, introduced as a “workingman’s” watch. The people most often seen wearing a Tudor watch are the ones leading an active lifestyle requiring a sturdy watch with good timekeeping abilities. Although the Tudor movements may have fewer jewels than the traditional Rolex, they are just as good time keeping as their more expensive “sister brand” watches and also just as durable.

In 1932, the company introduced a new pocket watch movement, the “Rolex Prince Imperial”. This new movement was redesigned to prove one of the most accurate watches ever made by Rolex.

During the 50’s decade, two of the most esoteric models the company ever produced were introduced. The “Tru-beat” (model 6556) and the “Milgauss” (model 6541). The “True-beat” was a standard chronometer grade non-date Oyster Perpetual, but it had a dead beat sweep seconds hand that would make the second hand stop at each seconds mark before jumping to the next one. According to the “Milgauss”, it was made in response to people working in areas of high electro-magnetic radiation, such as research labs or power stations, in which the effects of radiation would make the watches unreliable because of magnetizing the balance work of a watch.

At the Basel Fairm in 1954, Rolex launched four major models: The Explorer, the Turn-O-Graph, the Submariner and the Lady’s Perpetual Chronometer. The “Turn-O-Graph” (model 6202) was a simpler version of the “Submariner”. The “Turn-O-Graph” watch was Oyster Perpetual Precision grade (non-chronometer) with luminous visibility and black dials, luminous hands and rotating bezel. The “Submariner” featured almost the same characteristics, but it was water resistant to 200 meters. It was called “The diver’s friend”. The “Submariner” together with the “President” proved to be one of the outstanding successes of the 1950’s for the Rolex Company. Two years later, the company introduced the “Date-Date” model, a very important model.

The movement that was just as important to Rolex as the Oyster case was the first Perpetual. Rolex had used movements made by Eagler from the very beginning. The first one was de Rebberg which came in a wide variety of sizes and also in versions with a subsidiary seconds hand, with a sweep seconds hands or without any seconds hand. It was a simple, robust and versatile movement that served Rolex well for almost 20 yearsThen, Rolex produced the Hunter movement which was the first one that was regularly capable of being timed to chronometer precision. These chronometer movements were often either 17 or 18 jewel models with capped escape jewels.Even though the Oyster was proving very successful and met or exceeded all of Wilsdorf’s hopes for it, there was one problem: he needed an automatic system. Once again Rolex (or Aegler, who actually patented it) took the read of patient modification of an existing product. The first perpetual models are simple subsidiary seconds 8-3/4”’Hunter movements with the “Auto-Rotor” mechanism bolted straight onto the back. This arrangement had three additional benefits. First, the watch could be wound manually if needed. The facility to wind the automatic watch is now something to be taken for granted, but it is interesting to note that all of the early automatics ere incapable of manual winding. Apart from its use during periods of enforced idleness, the manual facility on the Rolex Perpetual gave confidence to those people who still did not trust the watch yet.Second, because the rotor swung through a full rotation, there was nothing for it to hit, so the movement received no shocks through the sudden braking of a weight. Besides, the watch was less noisy as Rolex advertised: “Rolex, the silent self winder”.Finally, the arrangement allowed the watchmaker to remove the whole of the automatic mechanism with only two screws and then be faced with a simple manual movement that he would instantly recognize. This is an important factor in the success of Rolex’s automatic movement.The exact date of the launch of the Rolex Perpetual would seem to be in late 1933 or early 1934. No earlier Rolex advertisement makes any mention of the watch. The first Perpetuals were produced in a case that was another classic Rolex modification, simply the first model Oyster Royal with a new, deeper back.What we must not forget is that in introducing the Perpetual in 1934, Rolex chose to do so in the depth of the worst depression the industrial world had seen, and as the world’s economies began to improve the Perpetual was waiting.

Although it is the generally accepted view that Hans Wilsdorf, the famous Swiss watchmaker, sitting alone in his Geneva workshop and working late into night, came up with the idea of the Oyster case and thereby set Rolex off in a new direction, none of this is true. Wilsdorf was never either Swiss or a watchmaker. The Oyster was the result of at least four attempts by the company to produce a waterproof case prior to the introduction of the Oyster.Despite his British Nationality and Swiss domicile Hans was very much a German and his greatest strengths were his persistence and his dedication to slow progressive development of his existing product and so after trying hardly, in 1914, Wilsdorf and Davis introduced their first watch with a threaded bezel and back. The introduction of the Borgel cases was known to be the first model produced by Rolex in which the case was specifically designed to give protection against some of the elements. When Rolex wristwatches sales took off in the tropical markets on India and East Asia, in hot and humid conditions there were natural challenges: humidity over mechanisms. Baumgartner came up with the “hermetic” cases solution that Wilsdorf patented in London on May 10, 1923. Wilsdorf was so proud of his watch that even before submitting his patent he applied for three new model names, “Aqua”, “The Submariner” and “Diver”. He also registered a new style of window display involving the suspension of a working watch in an aquarium.Finally, in October 30, 1925, in La Chaux-de-Fonds, Paul Perregaux and Georges Peret, two prototype maker, filed a patent that was later given the number 114, 948 which describes the invention for a moisture proof winding stem and button. The button utilized springs and double helical screws to provide the first real solution to waterproofing a watch steam. The both sold their rights to the patent to Wilsdorf and a year later a British patent was then issued bearing the number 260.554 has always been seen as the Original Oyster Patent.The name “Oyster” it self was Wilsdorf’s own contribution, saying he was inspired by the diffulty he experienced in opening an oyster while preparing a dinner party. He registered the name in Switzerland on July 29, 1926 and two months later in London.